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Friday, November 30, 2012

Sepia Saturday: Swimming Hole

Sepia Saturday challenges
bloggers to share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt is a photo of a
footbridge in Mosman Bay on the north shore of Sydney Harbor. People stopping to chat, some boaters, and a
dog bring life to the scene.

So why did these young people cross the footbridge?

Friends of Violetta Davis
early 1920s

To get to the other side, of course!

So they could do this:

Violetta Davis Ryan far right

Where my great-aunt Violetta Davis and her friends were swimming that
day is not easy to determine since she didn’t bother to identify the Who, What,
Where, When or Why.

A favorite swimming hole for those living in Shenandoah,
Virginia, was “Blue Hole.” But that
seems to be the popular name for any spot in the river wide enough and deep
enough for people to swim. There were at
least three Blue Holes where Violetta and her friends could seek
relief from the heat of summer. The
closest was in nearby Naked Creek near Elkton, Virginia.

"Luxury"
Blue Hole near Elkton, Virginia
scanned from Shenandoah: A History of Our Town and Its People

Judging by that rock outcropping in both pictures, I think they were right here in Naked Creek bringing life to the otherwise quiet swimming hole.

A simple CLICK will serve as your footbridge to more
interpretations of today’s theme at Sepia Saturday.

In response to the request for more information on Naked Creek, please click HEREfor an update.

Wendy this was quite a fun splash in the water! Best kind of fun around bridges ever! We may need more info on the Nake Creek! Hahahahaha! I went for the more wintry bridges-only since it's Dec first! Can you believe it? It seems it was only summer- what happened!!!

This brings back memories for me of a swimming hole near my home when we were growing up. We could ride our bicycles to it and splashed around trapping frogs and having a great time, totally unsupervised. The kind of freedom kids today will rarely enjoy.

We had quarries (abandoned, of course)for summer swimming! There was one near the farm we used whenever haying: bale, load onto the truck and, on the way back to the barn, stop off for a quick dip in the quarry to wash off all that hay chaff that itched so much! Naked Creek sounds perfect to me!

Those people in the swimming hope look like my mom's generation in the early 1930s. We swam in the abandoned rock quarry near our home when I was just a little girl. No swimming pools until about 1952.QMM

I've found a few of those suspension footbridges across the mountain creeks and rivers. They used to be more common in the Appalachians to connect homes and villages that otherwise had a long road to the next proper bridge. And who's holding the camera for Violetta?

Mike, If you look closely at the bridge picture, there is a 4th person peeking over the girl's shoulder. Then in another photo that I didn't use, there is another guy and a young boy. So it seems there were 5 or 6 people there that day.

Hi Wendy! Great pictures. I would love to go swimming there. It brings back memories from living in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, where there are many great swimming holes like this. Thanks for sharing these with us.

I remember visiting my grandmother's cousin who lived on Naked Creek. I think her name was Lettie. I remember catching crawfish in the creek. My great grandmother Ila Merica's home was just up the way from Lettie's house near Grindstone Mountain.

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About Me

My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net